Detail of the mural by Vaclav Vaca at the Lady altar in St. Michael's Cathedral.
Mary is the most beautiful flower that ever was seen in the spiritual world. It is by the power of God's grace that from this barren and desolate earth there have ever sprung up at all flowers of holiness and glory. And Mary is the queen of them. She is the queen of spiritual flowers; and therefore she is called the rose, for the rose is fitly called of all flowers the most beautiful.
- Ven. John Henry Cardinal Newman
"Dieu te dit: un jour viendra où une fleur fleurira de ta souche reverdie; et son parfum remplira tout les coeurs d'ici-bas du soufle de la vie." ('Le Roi David', Morax/Honegger, after Isaiah)
ReplyDeleteWhat's the story behind the mural? While it is beautiful, it seems somewhat out of place relative to the gothic architecture in the rest of the cathedral.
ReplyDeleteas it happens, Morax and Honegger's oratorio might well be thought out of place in a gothic setting, too... which hadn't quite occurred to me before. Honegger can be so weird...
ReplyDeleteYes, Vaca's surrealism is a striking departure from the rest of the Cathedral. The artist, by the way, is alive and living in Toronto. There's a bit of background on his Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaclav_Vaca
ReplyDelete